DOE Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) - Awards

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A modern electricity grid is vital to the Nation’s security, economy and modern way of life, providing the foundation for essential services that Americans rely on every day. The Nation’s power grid, however, is aging and faces a future for which it was not designed.

The Energy Department’s Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI) represents a comprehensive effort to help shape the future of our nation’s grid and solve the challenges of integrating conventional and renewable sources with energy storage and smart buildings, while ensuring that the grid is resilient and secure to withstand growing cybersecurity and climate challenges. Through the GMI and its Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP), the Department will help frame new grid architecture design elements, develop new planning and real-time operations platforms, provide metrics and analytics to improve grid performance, and enhance government and industry capabilities for designing the infrastructure and regulatory models needed for successful grid modernization. The MYPP builds on concepts and recommendations from DOE’s recently released Quadrennial Energy Review and Quadrennial Technology Review.

As part of the GMI, the Energy Department announced funding in January, 2016 of up to $220 million over three years for DOE’s National Labs and partners. The Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium funding will support critical research and development in advanced storage systems, clean energy integration, standards and test procedures, and a number of other key grid modernization areas. This effort recognizes regional differences and will strengthen regional strategies while defining a diverse and balanced national strategy. In addition to projects that address the needs of incorporating individual grid technologies like solar or energy storage, DOE is also developing crosscutting projects that have impact across multiple technologies. A list of the projects appears below. Note: funding amounts listed below are subject to appropriations and to final negotiations with award recipients.

Build a new stakeholder-driven architecture for grid modernization, provide it to the industry along with the tools they need to adapt it to their needs, and use it to inform the playbook for GMLC program managers.

This project provides strategic vision for interoperability endorsed by stakeholders with tools to measure interoperability maturity and the progress of related investments. It prioritizes interoperability gaps and develops an overarching roadmap for stakeholder endorsement.

Develop a widely accepted, well-tested valuation methodological framework for evaluating the collection of value streams (net benefits) that can be provided by different grid-related technologies and services.

Identify measurement requirements along with associated data management and communication systems to enable full visibility of grid system state. This methodology will include defining the grid state, developing a roadmap along with a framework to determine sensor allocation for optimal results.

Pioneer Regional Partnerships

Project Name

Description

Labs

Partners

Funding

Project 7: Southeast Consortium

Identify measurement requirements along with associated data management and communication systems to enable full visibility of grid system state. This methodology will include defining the grid state, developing a roadmap along with a framework to determine sensor allocation for optimal results.

Investigation, development, and analysis of the risks, costs, and benefits of a microgrid utilizing renewable energy systems at the UPS WorldPort and Centennial Hub facilities. Develop a roadmap to help industries evaluate microgrid adoption by defining institutional and regulatory challenges associated with development of industrial-based resilient systems.

Conduct technical evaluations to assess energy and critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, and to identify cost effective options to improve the resiliency of both the electrical grid infrastructure and the community.

SNL, LANL

City of New Orleans, Rockefeller Institute, Entergy, US Army Corps of Engineers

$1M proposed over two years

Project 13: Alaska Microgrid Partnership

Develop a design basis framework and programmatic approach to assist stakeholders in their efforts to reduce diesel fuel consumption by at least 50% in Alaska's remote microgrids without increasing system lifecycle costs, while improving overall system reliability, security, and resilience.

Develop, simulate, validate, and deploy practical solutions in Hawaii that enable distributed energy resources (DERs) to help mitigate bulk system frequency contingency events on the fastest time scale (milliseconds to seconds). Validate the ability of real hardware inverters to support grid frequency in an environment that emulates the dynamics of a HECO power system.

Convene industry and academic experts in power systems to evaluate the HVDC and AC transmission seams between the U.S. interconnections and propose upgrades to existing facilities that reduce the cost of modernizing the nation's power system.

Three campuses (PNNL, UW and WSU) will develop and test a range of transactive control activities on each of the 3 campuses. They will also develop the ability to coordinate across these three campuses to provide coordinated services to the PNW power system and their serving distribution utilities based upon the transactive response of key loads on the campuses. The UW will emphasize energy storage and coordination for peak management and provision of flexibility. The WSU campus will leverage its microgrid and major campus loads and thermal storage to deliver transactive response. And PNNL will advance controls in its new SEB grid building and other campus loads to help the City of Richland better manage its demand limits. OE and BTO collaborated in the design and cost share of the project.

PNNL

Washington State Clean Energy Fund, University of Washington, Washington State University

$2M DOE, $2M WA CEF over 18 months

Crosscutting Activities

Project Name

Description

Labs

Partners

Funding

Project 17: Standards and Test Procedures for Interconnection and Interoperability

This project will build on prior efforts and leverage existing activities spanning multiple DOE programs that are developing interconnection and interoperability standards and test procedures to:

Enable and spur the deployment of a broad range of distributed energy resource (DER) devices by defining a test protocol to characterize their ability to respond to grid signals and define a standard set of grid services and "drive cycles" to describe the capabilities that DERs must have to provide them.

Increase visibility throughout the energy system including transmission, distribution, and end-use by developing low-cost, accurate sensors. Additionally, next generation asset monitoring devices will help determine state of grid components prior to failure.

Develop a low cost scalable infrastructure for integrating disparate high fidelity data sources. Machine learning methodologies will be used to assist in transforming data into actionable intelligence. This platform will allow multiple entities to collaborate on data utilization.

LANL, SNL, LBNL, ORNL, NREL, ANL

OSIsoft, National Instruments

$2.5M over three years

Project 21: Control Theory

Develop new control solutions including topologies, algorithms, and deployment strategies for transitioning the power grid to a state where a huge number of distributed energy resources are participating in grid control to enable the grid to operate with lean reserve margins. The theory effort will recognize the need to engage legacy control concepts and systems as we transition to more distributed control.

LANL, PNNL, ANL, INL, NREL, SNL, LLNL

Oncor, PJM Interconnection, United Technologies Research Center

$6.5M over three years

Project 22: Multi-Scale Integration of Control Systems (EMS/DMS/BMS)

Create an integrated grid management framework for the end-to-end power delivery system - from central and distributed energy resources at bulk power systems and distribution systems, to local control systems for energy networks, including building management systems.

Build on best-in-class Lab capabilities to develop an integrated, flexible, open source framework for coupling TDC models and simulations. Validate framework and models on hardware testbed. Demos with partners will include distributed /wide area controls and DER.

Develop technologies and methodologies to protect the grid from advanced cyber and all-hazard threats through the collection of disparate data and the employment of advanced analytics for threat detection and response.

Project will develop tools, identify gaps and provide technical assistance/training targeted at state regulators and small/medium utilities (e.g., co-ops and municipal utilities) on advanced distribution system planning for a modernized grid that incorporates high levels of DER.

Project 28: Development and Deployment of Multi-Scale Production Cost Models

Develop ability to more accurately estimate economic impact of renewables, storage, and other technologies. Research scalable methods for deterministic and stochastic PCM, higher resolution grid models, applications of uncertainty quantification and high performance computing (HPC). New capabilities will be deployed with system planners through PCM workshops.

Program Specific Selections

Building Technologies Office

Note: If FY17 and FY18 appropriations are consistent with PY16 omnibus, BTO anticipates flat project fund to complete the following three year projects.

Project Name

Description

Labs

Partners

Funding

Project 1: Virtual Batteries

Develop a characterization methodology to quantify the capacity/availability of virtual storage resources through transactive control of building loads to deliver grid and other transactive services. This work will be conducted in coordination with OE, ARPA-E, and PNNL's Control of Complex Systems Initiative (PNNL LDRD funded).

Design, develop, and field a multi-purpose transactive controller and associated open source algorithms that will ensure real time optimal operation of building equipment, increase electric grid reliability, and lead to the goal of clean, efficient, reliable and affordable next generation buildings and energy systems.

PNNL

$3M over three years

Project 4: Transformer Efficiency

Develop and evaluated transactive load control strategies for distribution and building level transformers that improve the efficiency of integrated electric energy system and extend the service life of utility and building assets. This work will be conducted in coordination with the DOE Appliance Standards Program.

SRNL

DOD, Clemson, Duke Power, SCE&G, Santee Cooper

$4.5M over three years

Project 5: Hybrid Inverter

Develop universal transactive driver interface for the Volttron platform to enable near real-time control of DER-based, community scaled power electric.

Fuel Cells Technologies Office

Project Name

Description

Labs

Partners

Funding

Project 1: Optimal Stationary Fuel Cell Integration and Control

This project has two main objectives: 1) to implement an open-source dispatch and load control tool for building management that can communicate and transact with a fuel cell integrated building system and the grid for optimized dispatch of building components, and 2) to implement a planning tool for optimal component selection and sizing based on optimal resource control for distributed energy systems and smart building component using location specific energy markets, building energy modeling, and chosen dispatch control strategy.

The goal of this project is to establish the available capacity, value, and impacts of interconnecting hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell electric vehicles to the electric grid. The first objective is to quantify the opportunity of utilizing flexibility from hydrogen systems to support the grid. The second objective is to develop and implement methods to assess optimal system configuration and operating strategy for grid-integrated hydrogen systems. Data products (e.g., equipment costs, market data, vehicle operation and fueling data) will be available for release to help establish a benchmark for future work.

LBNL, NREL, INL

$1.65M proposed over three years

Solar Energy Technologies Office

Project Name

Description

Lab

Partners

Funding

Project 1: Additively Manufactured Photovoltaic Inverter (AMPVI)

In this three-year integrated project, activities will be focused on development and validation of the foundational building blocks needed for the additively manufactured photovoltaic inverter (AMPVI). Technology development include high voltage SiC-based power block, gate driver, controller board, and control algorithms, magnetic design tools, additive manufacturing inverter design, prototyping, and integration testing.

Advanced DC-DC and DC-AC converter-based integrated modules and associated systems architectures and topologies will be developed for 13.8kV, 60Hz direct grid connection using SiC devices. In parallel, advanced magnetic cores and high frequency (HF) transformers built upon them will be developed to enable DC-DC and DC-AC converters with energy storage (ES) that serve as the building blocks for the proposed technologies. System architecture studies informed by market driven technical requirements will also be performed to provide guidance for the on-going R&D activities throughout.

Project 4: Improvement and Validation of the System Advisor Model (SAM)

Strengthen and increase relevance of the System Advisor Model (SAM) as the best-in-class modeling software for techno-economic analysis of solar energy technologies. Research and implement cutting-edge system performance and financial models. Develop open platforms to enable custom, proprietary, and high value-add extension plugins. Technical support, documentation, and training to promote stakeholder engagement. Integrate the latest and most accurate databases for components, solar resource, tariffs, and costs.

NREL

$2.2M proposed over three years

Project 5: Dynamic Building Load Control to Facilitate High Penetration of Solar Photovoltaic Generation

Responsive loads that can be controlled temporally and spatially to minimize difference between demand and PV production to minimize voltage variation and reduce two-way power flow. Develop models and perform system-level simulation; Model-based control design to generate control software; Controller and communication network development; Unit-level and system-level testing; Field Testing

ORNL

Southern Company, University of Tennessee, Georgia Tech

$3M proposed over three years

Project 6: Concentrating Solar Power in a SunShot Future

Analyze the role of dispatchable concentrating solar power (CSP) in providing multiple grid services to increase the overall penetration of solar energy and mitigate the variability impacts of solar PV. Using industry vetted tools and methods simulate the value of CSP with TES providing multiple grid services over all time scales of interest

The goal of this effort is to develop a distributed control and communications architecture that refines the SunShot Systems Integration communications target metrics by clearly articulating the impact of each metric on the grid. Depending on the application, some metrics may be relaxed significantly, resulting in significant cost savings. For other applications, the metrics may not be sufficient to maintain or improve the stability and security of the power grid with very high penetrations of PV generation (e.g., 2030).

The objective of the proposed research is a full-scale, operational implementation of the opportunistic hybrid communication system. The system is considered hybrid because it utilizes different communications pathways, such as SCADA systems, satellite communications, and powerline communications. It is opportunistic in that it chooses to route messages through each of these systems based on recent data about latency and availability to ensure reliable message passing. From a PV perspective, the research will allow the current gaps in knowledge on grid performance, phrased in terms of reliability, scalability, interoperability, flexibility, and security, to be filled with measured data from PV systems and other monitoring points in the power system and with robust inferences from state estimation algorithms.

This project updates the codes and standards identified under the grid performance and reliability topic area focusing on the distribution grid. The standards addressed are the IEEE 1547 series, UL 1741 and the NEC. Establishing accelerated development of new interconnection and interoperability requirements and conformance procedures is the key result for this project.

NREL, SNL

$3M proposed over three years

Project 10: Frequency Response Assessment and Improvement of Three Major North American Interconnections due to high penetrations of Photovoltaic Generation

Directly addressing the reduced system inertia and frequency response challenge under high (60-90%) solar penetration for all three major grids (WECC, ERCOT, and EI). Technical Approach: 1) Dynamic simulations using power grid models and best-estimated high PV penetration scenarios, 2) Develop grid-support inverter control.

Goal: Development new and innovative methods for rapid QSTS Simulations to assess Distributed PV impacts accurately. Objective 1: Reduce the computational time and complexity of QSTS analysis to achieve year-long time series solutions that can be run in less than 5 minutes at a time step of 1 second. Objective 2: Develop high-resolution proxy data sets that will be statistically representative of existing measured load and PV plant data and will provide an accurate representation of PV impacts. Objective 3: Improve both the time and accuracy of QSTS analysis in order to make it the industry-preferred PV impact assessment method.

Project 14: Enabling a High penetration of Distributed PV Through the Optimization of Sub-Transmission Voltage Regulation

Voltage regulation challenges at sub-transmission will be a barrier for high penetration of photovoltaics (PVs). We will develop a Coordinated Real-time Sub-Transmission Volt-Var Control Tool (CReST-VCT) to optimize the use of reactive power control devices to stabilize voltage fluctuations caused by intermittent PV. We will couple this tool to an Optimal Future Sub-Transmission Volt-Var Planning Tool (OFuST-VPT) for short- and long-term planning. Together, the real-time control and planning tools will remove a major roadblock to the increased use of distributed PV. CReST-VCT will be demonstrated and validated on North Carolina State University (NCSU) microgrid test systems with hardware-in-the-loop simulations. Field demonstration will be performed on the Duke Energy system feeder test bed and selected sub-transmission buses.

Objective: Understand the impact of technologies on the distribution system and how they can be used for planning and operations to increase PV penetration (reduce interconnection study costs and approval duration). Approach: Build a set of open source tools. Verify tools utilizing data from industry and utility partners. Validate the platform in a pilot testbed with HIL and data from deployed hardware in the field.

Project 16: Stabilizing the Power System in 2035 and Beyond: Evolving from Grid-Following to Grid-Forming Distributed Inverter Controllers

The aim of the proposed project is to develop distributed inverter controllers which provide a low-resistance path from the current inertia-dominated grid paradigm to a future grid paradigm dominated by low-inertia power systems with 100's of GWs of PV integration.

AeroVironment, Bonneville Power Administration, University of Delaware, DTE Energy

$3.4M over three years

Project 2: Systems Research Supporting Standards and Interoperability

The objective of the proposed project is to address the considerable uncertainty regarding the degree to which PEVs can provide grid services and mutually benefit the electric utilities, PEV owners, and auto manufacturers. How can the potential benefits be unlocked without negative unintended consequences? This project will answer this question by leveraging capabilities of multiple national laboratories with vehicle/grid integration (VGI) to perform hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) studies that integrate communication and control system hardware with simulation and analysis activities.

Determining the feasibility of VGI by quantifying the potential value, cost, complexity, and risks in different implementations of VGI. Allocating available value among stakeholders and determining pathways for electrification of transportation to enable beneficial grid services such as mitigating renewables intermittency.

The overall goal of this project is to develop a Diagnostic Security Module (DSM) framework for creating an end-to-end security architecture for the integration of modern Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) with Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) and a BEMS.

Wind and Water Power Technologies Office

Project Name

Description

Lab

Partners

Funding

Project 1: Market and Reliability Opportunities for Wind on the Bulk Power System

This project aims to create a modeling framework that will model timescales from decades to seconds to help analyze the impact of wind generation on the power system while considering realistic market design and strategies. This framework will provide the ability to model the impacts of wind on the economics and reliability of the grid in a realistic market environment. Most integration studies have focused on modeling the physical characteristics of the grid, but market inefficiencies can hinder access to the physical flexibility that is available, as noted in the Wind Vision Roadmap. The inability of previous studies to consider these market impacts on system operations are a significant shortcoming of previous work in wind integration. In this study, we propose a framework that considers the market impacts on revenue sufficiency and therefore resource adequacy and system reliability. Without the ability to represent realistic markets in future models and studies, system operators and regulators will not be able to integrate wind generation efficiently, creating a more difficult and costly transition to a modern electric power system.

This project aims at providing solutions to maintain situational awareness in the control room as more wind generation is integrated in power systems. The team proposes to develop an open visualization platform “WindView” that can simultaneously display wind forecast information with system power flows for the operators to better understand the operational aspects of the system as more wind energy is integrated. Industry-available and research-grade forecasting tools can be interfaced with WindView to display the wind energy forecasts through cognitive coarsened information representation, such as quantiles, bar graphs, and other representations identified by the industry partners. Through use of publicly-available map-based layout, such as Google Maps, the network information, such as power flows, generation dispatch, etc., will be displayed to avail the wide-area information. The design of WindView will be shaped by the most pressing needs of the industry through feedback and participation with industry partners.

ANL, NREL

Western Area Power Authority, University of Texas at Dallas, ERCOT, NYISO

$1.8M proposed over three years

Project 3: Power System Reliable Integration Support to Achieve Large Amounts of Wind Power (PRISALA)

Policymakers and industry stakeholders do not have sufficient access to clear and unbiased information about the characteristics of variable generation. This results in the creation of artificial limits to wind energy deployment that hinder development of bulk power system standards and increase the cost of maintaining reliability. According to the DOE Wind Vision Roadmap, “There is an important role for stake­holders in helping to develop best practices in power system operation and design, as well as in designing both physical and institutional systems to support achieving the Wind Vision.” In this project, we will address key parts of the role identified in the Wind Vision by engaging with policy makers, regulators, international groups and regional planning and reliability organizations (RP&ROs) to deliver timely and objective information about wind energy.

NREL

UVIG

$1.5M proposed over three years

Project 4: Providing Ramping Service with Wind to Enhance Power System Operational Flexibility

The aim of the proposed wind-friendly flexible ramping product is to transform a negative characteristic of wind power, specifically “ramping”, into an advantageous one. Through efficient management of wind ramps, a significant contribution to the reduction of integration costs of wind power can be obtained while simultaneously allowing the optimization of wind power as a ramping product in the market. Main project initiatives are: (i) Development of a probabilistic wind power ramp forecasting method to characterize and forecast ramps from a utility-scale perspective; (ii) Analysis and synthesis of ramping products specific to the proposed test system(s), allowing guidelines and recommendations to be derived with respect to spatiotemporal impacts and other case-specific considerations; (iii) Design of flexible ramping products which can be implemented in a new market model to co-optimize energy, reserve and ramping.; (iv) Validate the benefits of incorporating wind ramp forecasts and improved management of wind power dispatch, and demonstrate potential economic and reliability benefits; (v) Continue to develop the “GridLAB-ISO” tool and integrate the proposed ramping product model into it; use “GridLAB-ISO” to simulate an actual ISO system, and (vi) Create awareness of the benefits of flexible ramping products for the enhanced integration of wind energy, sharing methodologies and lessons learned with industry.

NREL

EPRI, University of Texas at Dallas, MISO, ERCOT

$1.5M proposed over three years

Project 5: Understanding the Role of Short-Term Energy Storage and Large Motor Loads for Active Power Controls by Wind Power

The goal of this effort is to develop and test coordinated controls of active power by wind generation, short term energy storage, and large industrial motor drives for providing various types of ancillary services to the grid and minimizing loading impacts and thereby reducing operation and maintenance costs (O&M) and subsequently the cost of energy (COE) generated by wind power. This work will utilize the $30M multi-year DOE investments and unique characteristics of NREL’s existing NWTC test site including a combination of multi-MW utility scale wind turbine generators, variable-frequency motor drives (VFD), new 8 MW energy storage testing facility, 1 MW solar PV array, and 7 MVA Controllable Grid Interface (CGI). This combination of technologies allows for the optimization, testing and demonstration of various types of active power controls (APC) by wind power in coordination with other generation sources (including regenerative loads) and energy storage that allows enhancing or, in some cases, substituting the APC services by wind power and reducing impacts on wind turbine component life and thus increasing the availability and reliability of the power supply from wind.

Idaho National Lab's concurrent cooling–Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) is an example of additional data that needs to be effectively integrated into control rooms. The DLR project supports the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (DOE-EERE) mission to provide high-impact research, development, and demonstration to make clean energy as affordable and convenient as traditional forms of energy by establishing a means to increase the integration of renewable energy generation with the associated increase in transmission line capacity, which are traditionally limited by conductor thermal capacity and can be significantly underutilized. These projects take a science-based approach to advance line rating standards through an innovative methodology. These projects also develop various technology improvements utilizing dynamic, real-time environmental conditions measured and modeled using computational fluid dynamics, leading to average line capacity improvements of 10–40% above static ratings. The weather station data and ampacity calculation comprise an additional layer of data. Utilities would like to utilize this new capacity to enable additional power flow when the need to transmit power coincides with conducive meteorological conditions (concurrent cooling). Conveying the information to allow the operator to make an informed decision based on this additional information is important to more effective utilization of the transmission asset. Even more important is the timely notification when conditions change in a negative direction as the extra capacity is actively being used.

The Pan North American Renewable Integration Study will address a major shortcoming in previous studies that only analyze high penetrations of renewables in one country. High penetrations of wind, solar, and hydro in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico could have substantial impacts on the design and operation of the power grids of each country, and analysis will be necessary to determine the potential operational impacts and the benefits of coordinated planning and operation between the three countries. PARIS will be the single largest renewable integration study ever undertaken.

NREL

Natural Resources Canada, SENER

$1.8M proposed over three years

Topics

Advanced Grid Modeling

This work proposes to develop a set of regional–level, scalable open source load models and tools, including large scale aggregate load protection, price responsive demand, advanced load composition data, and next generation load model data tools. The resulting improvements will significantly enhance the regional level power grid’s overall stability and reliability

PNNL, LBNL

WECC, MVWG, LMTF, Southern California Edison, BPA

$2.4M proposed over three years

Project 2: Emergency Monitoring and Controls Through New Technologies and Analytics

Development a new generation of emergency control systems for the U.S. power grid based on a combination of new technologies, and new analytic capabilities related to recent progress in the power system reliability assessment translated into new real-time algorithms for voltage stability and transient stability. Compared to the existing configuration of the overall protection system, the proposed Coordinated Emergency Control System (CECS) will bring the following significant advantages: The CECS system will operate in real time, while its setting will be selected in near real time, will dynamically coordinate settings of the existing hierarchical protection from Zone 1 protection to SPS protection and involve additional control actions to the overall design, CECS system will adapt to changing system configuration and parameters, and the system will be more online and data-driven, and not just post event-analysis driven it will rely on new analytics.

Leverage practical AMI, SCADA, PMU and laboratory experiment data to develop static, dynamic as well as customer behavior-driven and demand response-enabled load/DG models at component, customer, feeder and substation levels. The developed hierarchical load/DG models will facilitate the development of planning models and integrated transmission and distribution models (Topic 4). Successful completion of this project will deliver a set of load/DG models and commercially-available software tools (PSS/E, CYME, RTDS/OPAL-RT) with the developed models.

Develop and validate a dynamics and protection simulation platform to enable utility planning, operations, and protection engineers to better understand and mitigate cascading blackouts involving protection. To realize this goal, the team will build upon the capabilities of ‘TS3ph’, a dynamics simulator developed through the DOE-OE AGMR funded project “High-fidelity ‘faster than real-time’ simulator for predicting power system dynamic behavior.” The project will focus on advancing the modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization capabilities of TS3ph-CAPE through the following innovation pathways: Fill current industry modeling gaps, accelerate dynamics simulation, develop new analysis metrics, create new situational awareness capabilities, and validate and verify the developed dynamics simulator with standard industry tools, and observed data.

Advanced Distribution Management Systems

Project Name

Description

Lab

Partners

Funding

Project 1: Development of an Open-Source Platform for Advanced Distribution Management Systems

An initial version of an open source integrated software platform for varying vendor systems will be developed which supports the full suite of distribution management applications (such as voltage and reactive power optimization; fault location, isolation, and service restoration; economic dispatches; and optimization routines). This integrated platform, based on specifications and requirements to be developed jointly with utilities, will allow information to flow between individual applications across the entire utility enterprise, enabling enhanced visibility and controllability of system assets. Development and evaluation of the ADMS platform will be conducted in a utility-centric environment, involving qualified system operators from distribution utilities of varying sizes, to ensure that the capabilities being developed are applicable to the largest possible cross section of utilities. Investments leveraging the increased types and volume of available system data, due to a recent surge in advanced technology deployments, will also be explored to develop new applications. These new applications will greatly enhance observability and controllability required to integrate large amounts of renewables in a safe and effective manner, utilize assets more efficiently during restorations, enable much wider range of choices for consumers, and maintain affordable electricity rates.

This project will establish a national, vendor-neutral Advanced Distribution Management System testbed to accelerate industry development and adoption of ADMS capabilities for the next decade and beyond. The testbed will enable utility partners, vendors, and researchers to evaluate existing and future ADMS use cases in a test setting that provides a realistic combination of multiple utility management systems and field equipment. The testbed will allow utilities and vendors alike to evaluate: (1) the impacts of ADMS functions on system operations; (2) interoperability among ADMS system components; (3) interactions with hardware devices; (4) integration challenges of ADMS with legacy systems; and (5) ADMS vulnerability and resiliency. The testbed will provide a less expensive and lower risk alternative to a pilot deployment, plus the ability to simulate contingency scenarios that are not practical to test using a real distribution system.

NREL, PNNL, ANL

EPRI, ALSTOM Grid Inc., Schneider Electric, Opal-RT Technologies

$4.5M proposed over 3 years

Energy Systems Risk and Predictive Capabilities

Improve forecasts of electric outages for tropical cyclone events affecting U.S. territory in the Caribbean, Atlantic seaboard, and Gulf of Mexico regions. The project is intended to design a web-based tool that would forecast potential electric distribution outages from tropical cyclones on a county block level and to identify energy system infrastructure at-risk.

ANL

Meade Electric, Georgia Power/ Southern Company

$0.8M proposed over two years

Project 2: Recommendations for the Population, Location, and Operation of a Strategic Transformer Reserve

This project will investigate the potential of a Federal strategic reserve, proposed in H.R.2244, to provide spare transformers in times of extreme events by determining the number and assortment of spare transformers required to recover from extreme events in a timely manner, optimal number and location of storage facilities, transportation logistics, and recommendations for withdrawal practices.

ORNL, SNL

University of Tennessee-Knoxville, EPRI, SNL, Dominion Virginia Power Industry

Develop and deploy an online software tool available to the DOE Emergency Operations Center (EOC) analysts that enables them to make repeatable predictions of electrical outages caused by imminent or synthetic tropical cyclones at a spatial resolution of 250m X 250m with quantified uncertainty. The online software tool will also identify critical infrastructure at risk from direct cyclone impacts and secondary impacts from electric power outages.

LANL

University of Michigan, Texas A&M

$0.7M proposed over two years

Energy Storage

Collaborate with states, utilities, and storage providers to help elucidate storage benefits and integration challenges. Specifically, work with four demonstration projects that cover a wide range of promising technologies and applications: Green Mountain Power (VT), Salem Smart Grid Center (OR), Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga (TN), and Los Alamos County (NM). The outcome will be analysis that identifies the value streams for each potential application, as well as operational modes and control strategic for the optimal utilization of the energy storage system to maximize the value streams.

SNL, PNNL, ORNL

$2.5M proposed over two years

Project 2: Collaborative Demo for Secondary Use and Use Case Validation

Develop and examine the business case for a residential based deployment of secondary use energy storage, deploy and commission a secondary use energy storage system to bring industry acceptance and validation of the business case, drive the future of secondary use energy storage systems with advanced supporting control algorithms, and disseminate information to stakeholders.

ORNL

Spiers New Technologies, Habitat for Humanity, Central Carolina Community College

$1.2M proposed over three years

Smart Grid

Project Name

Description

Lab

Partners

Funding

Project 1: LPNORM: A LANL, PNNL, and NRECA Optimal Resiliency Model

Develop and deliver a software tool called LPNORM for designing resilient distribution grids to support meeting the MYPP goal and DOE major outcome of a "10% reduction in the economic costs of power outages by 2025." This tool is a novel combination of existing and new capabilities. LPNORM will allow users to import distribution and communication models, specify extreme weather events, specify resiliency criteria, and verify design solution quality with trusted power flow solvers.

Develop a distribution restoration decision support tool that will assist utilities in performing distribution restoration after extreme weather events in an optimal and efficient manner. The tool will integrate the weather information/forecasts and system fragility assessment together with the field measurement data for improved situational awareness and system damage estimates, employ advanced optimization models for dispatch of repair crews and associated resources, and utilize distribution automation to reconfigure distribution grids and pick up loads promptly to reduce the outage sizes and durations. The closed-loop feature of the proposed tool will make the tool adaptive to the evolving weather events and varying restoration capabilities.

ANL, BNL

Iowa State University

$1.95M proposed over three years

Transmission Reliability

Project Name

Description

Lab

Partners

Funding

Project 1: Discovery Through Situational Awareness (DTSA)

Produce a prototypical, interactive situational-awareness tool to provide data visualizations and identify anomalous grid behavior, allowing the user to explore any of the data. The research will look for precursors to unusual grid behavior and then apply machine-learning algorithms to help understand what happens around these unusual grid behaviors. Interactions with our industry partners will help fine-tune these algorithms. This project will advance the state-of-the-art and provide insights that can benefit the industry

Research to develop a suite of software applications and libraries of phasor measurement units (PMUs) and synchrophasor data for power system planning, modeling, and analysis. The research and software development activities will be coordinated with industry partners and universities. All applications will be based on the common open platform concept, have a common data format structure, and be released under an open-source license. This work will address oscillation detection, frequency response, model validation and calibration, equipment misoperations, and other important power-grid-related issues.

Investigate ways to use the information available from phasor measurement units (PMU), and the widespread availability of controllable loads, to design a novel control strategy for inter-area damping. The first part of the proposed work will develop a decoupled modulation control approach to design a more effective damping control with less interference among different oscillation modes in the system. The second explores how HVDC networks and a sufficient proportion of the loads could be used to enhance the decoupled modulation control approach developed in the first part. Methods to enhance measurement redundancy and control in case of PMU communication failure will also be developed.

PNNL, SNL

Arizona State University, Pennsylvania State University, BPA

$0.7M proposed over one year

Project 4: Advanced Machine Learning for Synchrophasor Technology

Develop a suite of new Grid-Modeling aware Machine Learning (ML) tools to monitor the transmission grid during its normal operations (task 1) and also localize significant frequency events in seconds after they occur (task 2). They will utilizes (a) advanced optimization and computation methods and algorithms for ML and data analytics; (b) the state-of-the-art, industry-grade frequency monitoring software; (c) phasor measurement unit (PMU) measurements at the transmission level; (d) aggregated micro-synchrophasors (uPMU) measurements at the distribution level; and (e) modern map-visualization tools and approaches. They will build new ML software to provide situational awareness, computational, and map-visualization extensions of the PNNL & BPA Power Plant Model Validation (PPMV) software.

LANL

BPA, JSIS, OPE Energy Corporation, Riverside Public Utilities

$3M proposed over three years

Transformer Resilience and Advanced Components

Project Name

Description

Lab

Partners

Funding

Project 1: Models and Methods for Assessing the Value of HVDC and MVDC Technologies in Modern Power Grids

This project will concentrate on exploring scenarios and use cases, including multi-objective DC system modulation/control strategies for providing artificial inertia to the system and simultaneously to provide an optimal redistribution of power flows in the AC system to accommodate additional flows from renewables in a reliable and economical fashion. The key element in the approach is to maximize the value of DC technologies by exploiting their advantages in a coordinated fashion.

The focus of this proposed effort is to develop a comprehensive set of transient and dynamic models for HVDC/MVDC transmission topologies, and hybrid simulation interfaces that can be used for stability and reliability analysis of DC-transmission dominated power systems with high levels of variable renewable generation. The availability of such models will enable the research community to investigate the impacts of control characteristics of HVDC/MVDC systems and address the challenges listed under several GMLC Foundational Topics.

NREL, LLNL, SNL

EPRI

$2.7M proposed over three years

Project 3: High Voltage Testing and Modeling of Transformer, Line Interface Devices, and System Components Under Electromagnetic Pulse, Geomagnetic Disturbance, and Other Abnormal Transients

This project consists of both the modeling and testing efforts that will help understand physics behind how GMD and EMP impact key components such as transformers in power grid and what damages they may cause. The first year will focus on the analytical and numerical modeling of the physics behind the GMD/EMP’s impacts to power grid components. The second year will focus on the testing-based study of the mechanism of insulation failure under short-duration EMP transients. And the third year will focus on the testing-based analysis of the multi-physics coupling of transformers under long duration transients (EMP E3 and GMD).

ORNL, LLNL

EPRI, Dominion, University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin

$2.2M proposed over three years

Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems

The objective of this project is to fill a gap and make the grid “smarter” (i.e. more intelligent and resilient) through the creation of an innovative ESB+ (enterprise service bus) for MultiSpeak. The ESB+ will support increased interoperability and security of the MultiSpeak standard and reduce costs in utilities that depend on MultiSpeak. ESB+ will include a number of game changing advances.

The objective of this project is to develop a holistic attack-resilient architecture and layered cyber-physical solution portfolio to protect the critical power grid infrastructure and the integrated distributed energy resources (DER) from malicious cyber-attacks. The project will help ensure the large-scale and secure integration of DER to the power without harming the grid reliability and stability.

ANL

WSU, EPRI

$1.8M proposed over three years

Note: funding amounts listed above are subject to appropriations and to final negotiations with award recipients.